No matter what the weather report says, I can smell spring in the air. Of course, breathing it in was a little difficult earlier this week when it was 4 degrees Fahrenheit during our morning dog walk. But hey, I won’t complain (much) because there was still that indescribable sensation of anticipation and promise. This morning the birds were even chirping in agreement.

We have collected many new relevant news stories over the past month, including information regarding the recently released proposed rule revising the definition of the Waters of the U.S.and information on public comment opportunities. Along the same lines, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund regarding pollutant discharges into groundwater – this court decision could have far-reaching implications for how the federal government, as well as states and tribes, protect their aquatic resources.

We have many state news stories to share as well, including a new study by Duke University in North Carolina identifying new clues to predict tipping points for marsh survival. You will also find a story about an historic agreement to clean up coal ash in Virginia and an incredibly successful collaboration between the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and the Conservation Fund to purchase 18,778 acres of forestland to significantly increase public access for hunting and wildlife-associated recreation while benefiting threatened and endangered species.

I hope you enjoy this month’s publication of Wetland Breaking News and encourage all of you to send us your newsworthy stories to share to .

Best regards,

Marla J. Stelk

EditorWetland Breaking News

Editor's Choice

Federal Agencies Publish Revised Rule on Waters of the United States

By David Reynolds – ACWA – February 14, 2019The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps (Army) on Feb. 14 published their revised rule on the definition of the “Waters of the United States” in the federal register. The agencies co-hosted a webinar to explain the new rule. EPA and the Army will hold a public hearing on the proposed new “Waters of the United States” definition in Kansas City with sessions on Feb. 27 and 28. The published rule appears the same as the draft that was previously released in December. Read full story here.

Supreme Court to hear case that could restrict federal water rules

By Timothy Cama – The Hill – February 19, 2019The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a major dispute with potentially far-reaching implications for how the federal government protects waterways from pollution. The case, County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, challenges an appeals court’s ruling that pollution discharged into groundwater that later flows into a navigable waterway can constitute a violation of the Clean Water Act. Read full story here.

'Green New Deal' lands in the Capitol

By Zak Colman and Anthony Adragna – Politico – February 7, 2019Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) released a blueprint for a Green New Deal on Thursday, urging a "10-year national mobilization" for a speedy shift away from fossil fuels and calling for national health care coverage and job guarantees in a sweeping bid to remake the U.S. economy. The burgeoning left-wing faction within the Democratic Party quickly persuaded several 2020 White House contenders to sign onto the Green New Deal’s tenets in a bid to push climate change and the broad economic platform up the ladder of party priorities. Read full story here.

Nomination of acting EPA head Wheeler moves to full Senate

By Ellen Knickmeyer – The Tribune – February 5, 2019Acting Environmental Protection Agency chief and former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler won a Senate committee’s approval of his appointment to the permanent post on Tuesday, along with praise from the panel’s Republicans for his work rolling back a series of Obama-era environmental measures. The 11-10 vote by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee sends President Donald Trump’s nomination of Wheeler to the full Senate. Read full story here.

Trump Eyes Action to Limit States' Powers to Block Pipelines

By Ari Natter and Jennifer A. Dlouhy – Bloomberg – January 24, 2019The Trump administration is considering taking steps to limit the ability of states to block interstate gas pipelines and other energy projects, according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The effort, possibly done through an executive order, is aimed chiefly at states in the Northeast U.S., where opposition to pipeline projects has helped prevent abundant shale gas in Pennsylvania and Ohio from reaching consumers in New York and other cities. Read full story here.

American Institute of Physics – February 15, 2019Final appropriations legislation enacted today provides steady or increased funding to research programs at science agencies that have been operating on stopgap spending from the outset of fiscal year 2019. President Trump signed legislation today that provides funding through Sept. 30 to all the agencies that have been operating on stopgap appropriations since October. The move averts a repeat of the recent funding lapse that shuttered many federal science agencies. The Senate passed the bill on a vote of 83 to 16 yesterday, and the House quickly followed suit with a vote of 300 to 128. Read full story here.

By Annie Snider – Politico – February 14, 2019The Environmental Protection Agency released a plan on Thursday to deal with a class of toxic chemicals found in 98 percent of Americans’ blood, but offered no guarantee the agency will enact enforceable drinking water regulations for the two best-studied compounds. Instead, the plan commits to taking the first step under the lengthy Safe Drinking Water Act process by making a formal decision on whether to set a limit on the amount of the chemicals allowed in tap water, called a Maximum Contaminant Level, this year. Read full story here.

The Senate just passed the decade’s biggest public lands package. Here’s what’s in it.

By Juliet Eilperin and Dino Grandoni – The Washington Post – February 12, 2019 – VideoThe Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon. The 662-page measure, which passed 92 to 8, represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide. Read full story here.

House lawmakers introduce resolution to support Paris climate agreement

By Timothy Cama – The Hill – February 8, 2019Dozens of House Democrats and one Republican introduced legislation Friday meant to demonstrate congressional support for the Paris climate agreement. The short, nonbinding resolution would declare that Congress “reaffirms its commitment” to the 2015 pact that every other nation in the world has signed onto, and that the United States “should not withdraw.” The measure would not mandate that the U.S. return to the agreement. Read full story here.

Earth marks fourth hottest year on record as Congress opens climate hearings

By Anthony Adragna, Kelsey Tamborrino, Zack Colman and Eric Wolff – Politico – February 6, 2019The Earth posted the fourth hottest year on record in 2018, according to data released by federal scientists on Wednesday, as Democrats in the House convened to take their first, tentative steps toward addressing climate change since they took control of the chamber last month. The new analysis by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed 2018's average surface temperatures firmly in line with the warming trends that have made the past five years the hottest since record keeping began in 1880. Read full story here.

EPA Signs MOU with The Water Research Foundation Advancing Nutrient Management Efforts

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – February 1, 2019Today, as part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to protecting America’s waters through smart partnerships and market-based approaches, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Water Research Foundation (WRF) to accelerate progress on reducing excess nutrients in the nation’s waterways. Read full news release here. View MOU here.

Government shutdown cost economy $11 billion, budget office says

By Dareh Gregorian – NBC News – January 28, 2019 – VideosFederal employees went back to work Monday after the longest shutdown in government history — but the economic effects will be felt for a long time. A report released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the economy took an $11 billion hit, including $3 billion that's gone forever, in the 35 days that parts of the federal government went unfunded. "In CBO's estimation, the shutdown dampened economic activity mainly because of the loss of furloughed federal workers' contribution to GDP, the delay in federal spending on goods and services, and the reduction in aggregate demand," the report said. Read full story here.

New Governors Target Climate Change from Day One in Vulnerable Great Lakes Region

By Dan Gearino – InsideClimate News – January 24, 2019 Climate change poses risks to the economy and identity of a Great Lakes landscape, much of it defined by bountiful farms, pine forests and clear waters. But political leaders haven't always treated it that way. That's starting to change as a wave of new governors and attorneys general take office across the region with promises—and actions—to address climate change. The regional changes may signal a new dynamic for national debates, as climate policy advocates broaden their base of support to include some of the country's hubs of manufacturing and farming. Read full story here.

Poll: Extreme weather events changing Americans’ climate change views

By Timothy Cama – The Hill – January 22, 2019Extreme weather events like droughts and floods are pushing Americans to believe more in the science of climate change, a new poll found. In the Associated Press-NORC poll released Tuesday, 48 percent of respondents said they found the science of human-induced climate change more convincing when the poll was taken in November 2018 than they did five years ago. Read full story here.

By Shannon Cunniff – Environmental Defense Fund – January 16, 2019This week, the Army Corps of Engineers formally released an important resource guide, “Engineering with Nature: An Atlas.” This isn’t your typical government issued atlas of maps and figures. It’s an important first step toward broadening understanding, consideration and acceptance of natural infrastructure as a flood risk reduction and resilience strategy. The glossy compendium of 56 Corps projects illustrates that restoring nature and using nature-based features and processes – such as dunes, wetlands, reefs, functioning floodplains and rivers – can efficiently yield real economic, environmental and social benefits. Read full blog post here.

State News

CA: Calif. clinches new regulations just in time for federal rollback

Ariel Wittenberg – E&E News – February 4, 2019After more than a decade of drafting and editing, California is poised to finally update its wetlands regulations this spring. The effort, which began after a pair of Supreme Court decisions limited federal wetlands protections, could be finalized just in time to insulate the state from a Trump administration proposal restricting which wetlands and waterways are protected by the Clean Water Act. California State Water Resources Control Board Chief Deputy Director Jonathan Bishop said the administration's Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule "has little to do with our process." But, he said, "It does highlight the need to have clear rules for Waters of the State so that no matter what happens with WOTUS, we are still protecting these important features in California." Read full story here.

CA: The Land Where Birds Are Grown

By Cynthia Hooper – Places Journal – January 2019 – VideosRemaking California’s Central Valley wetlands was a complicated project that took much of the 20th century. Resurrected from degraded farmland and cash-strapped gun clubs, assembled by bulldozer and backhoe, the current patchwork of national wildlife refuges, state wildlife areas, and county preserves is much diminished from the four million acres of primeval wetlands that spanned the Central Valley before it was farmed. Nevertheless, these habitats are ecologically significant on a hemispheric level, serving 60 percent of migratory waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway, including three million ducks, two million geese, and a half million shorebirds. Their restoration has lured hungry birds away from agricultural fields, created wilderness access for rural communities, and returned endangered species to viable numbers. Decades before the spread of concepts like the Anthropocene and reconciliation ecology, refuge managers were devising ways to sustain ecological systems that had been dramatically altered. Read full article and view videos here. Read full story and view video here.

CA: The West Coast’s biggest bird oasis is dying. Will it be saved?

By Alejandra Borunda – National Geographic – December 28, 2018 – VideoDuring migration season, birds pack the wetlands at the edge of the Salton Sea. Ducks dive, pelicans skim across the water’s surface, and hundreds of other species stalk the shores and bob on the surface of California’s largest, and most unusual, lake. The Salton Sea is a vast, shallow body of water percolating in the hot desert inland of San Diego and a key stopover point for many birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway. Over the years, as other wetlands along the flyway have been lost to development, drought, or other causes, it has taken on an outsized importance for migrating birds. Read full story and view video here.

Contact: Joanna Wilson – Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control – January 22, 2019The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Watershed Stewardship in partnership with public and private environmental organizations have introduced the Delaware Living Shorelines Monitoring Framework, a tool to help landowners, professionals, and scientists develop plans for gauging the success of living shoreline projects installed throughout the state. Read full story here.

MD: Maryland Reduces Use of Road Salts to Protect the Environment and Public Health

Contacts: Jay Apperson and Charlie Gischlar – Maryland Department of the Environment – January 18, 2019As winter weather impacts the state, Maryland is working to reduce the use of road salts that can threaten public health and the environment – including the water that we drink – while keeping traffic moving safely. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is taking steps to reduce salt in rivers, streams and groundwater to protect aquatic life and drinking water sources while roads are made safe for winter travel. MDE has been working for several years with state agencies and local jurisdictions on best practices for salt application, including use of improved weather forecasting, using the right amount of salt, targeting roads in most need of treatment, using brine to reduce overall salt usage and increasing training for employees and contracted equipment operators. The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) employs a range of strategies to reduce its use of salt while continuing to keep roads safe – and over the past five years has reduced its overall salt usage by half. Read full story here.

MN: Minnesota's winters are warming at a rate 13 times faster than its summers

Associated Press SC Times – January 17, 2019With its famously bitter winters growing milder, Minnesota is one of the fastest warming states in the country, according to scientists. Minnesota's winters are warming at a rate 13 times faster than its summers, and Minneapolis and Mankato are among the fastest-warming cities, University of Minnesota professor Tracy Twine told state lawmakers Tuesday. The meeting is part of the newly named House Energy and Climate Finance and Policy Division's efforts to spotlight how climate change is affecting the state, the Star Tribune reported. Read full story here.

MS: Mississippi Sues Federal Government Over River Flooding

By Jeff Amy – The Washington Post – February 11, 2019The state of Mississippi on Monday sued the federal government, claiming a dam complex in Louisiana that keeps the Mississippi River from changing course is harming state land. The suit seeks at least $25 million in damages and touches on one of the most sensitive engineering questions in the nation — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decades-long effort to keep the Mississippi in its current channel flowing past Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Read full story here.

Contact: Tim Lucas – Nicolas School of the Environment – February 13, 2019Sea-level rise, sediment starvation and other environmental woes pose increasing threats to coastal wetlands worldwide. But a massive new Duke University study could help stem these losses by giving scientists a broader understanding of which wetlands are most at risk, and why. The study, which assessed wetland distribution and resilience in hundreds of U.S. estuaries, found that it’s all a matter of scale. Read full story here.

By Chloe Johnson – The Post and Courier – January 18, 2019 Luke Pope-Corbett has been leading kayakers on ecology-focused expeditions at the site, near Middleton Place, for nine years. The experience serves as an immersion into one of the most iconic landscapes of the Lowcountry: a blackwater cypress swamp. The bottomland forest where Pope-Corbett conducts tours is protected from development by a conservation easement, but it’s a striking example of a landscape that could be under threat if changes to the Clean Water Act proposed last month take effect, experts say. Read full story here.

By John Dillon – VRP – February 6, 2019The state’s largest wetlands area stretches 15 miles along the Otter Creek in Addison and Rutland counties. Local groups have started talking to the state about how to provide greater protection for the Otter Creek wetlands, as the Trump administration seeks to roll back national wetland protection rules. Read full story here.

VA: "Historic" Agreement to Clean Up Coal Ash in Va.

By Laura Adams Boycourt – Chesapeake Bay Magazine – January 25, 2019Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and bipartisan state lawmakers have agreed to remove more than 27 million cubic yards of coal ash from the watershed. Read full article here. Coal ash, which is essentially what remains after coal is burned in coal-fired power plants, contains a variety of hazardous contaminants. If stored or disposed of improperly, it can threaten the health of nearby species and ecosystems. Read full article here.

Contacts: Larry Altose, Jerry Shervey, and Allison Geiselbrecht – Washington Department of Ecology – February 13, 2019A company on the Duwamish River that recovers metal from cars and other machinery continued to discharge excessive levels of zinc, copper, lead, and other pollutants into the waterway over the past two years. The Washington Department of Ecology has fined Seattle Iron and Metals Corp. (Seattle Iron) $98,000, for violations in 2017 and 2018. The company violated limits on pollutant discharges into the river dozens of times and failed to maintain facilities that protect the waterway from untreated stormwater. Read full news release here.

WV: The Conservation Fund Acquires 18,000 Acres in Key Step for Public Recreation and Wildlife Conservation In West Virginia

Contact: Ann Simonelli – The Conservation Fund – December 20, 2018Today, The Conservation Fund announced its purchase of 18,778 acres of forestland—an important step toward significantly increasing public access for hunting and wildlife-associated recreation in northwestern West Virginia, while benefiting threatened and endangered species. Acquired by the Fund at the request of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR), the lands will eventually be transferred to the state as funding becomes available, enabling the future creation of five new West Virginia Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) and the expansion of four existing WMAs and the North Bend State Park. Read full story here.

WI: Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal with Foxconn

By Austin Carr– Bloomberg – February 6, 2019

“This is the Eighth Wonder of the World.” So declared President Donald Trump onstage last June at a press eventat Foxconn’s new factory in Mount Pleasant, Wis. He was there to herald the potential of the Taiwanese manufacturing giant’s expansion into cheesehead country. He’d joined Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou and then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to celebrate a partnership he’d helped broker— “one of the great deals ever,” Trump said. In exchange for more than $4.5 billion in government incentives, Foxconn had agreed to build a high-tech manufacturing hub on 3,000 acres of farmland south of Milwaukee and create as many as 13,000 good-paying jobs for “amazing Wisconsin workers” as early as 2022. Read full story here.

WI: Superior, Douglas County work together on wetland mitigation

By Shelley Nelson – Superior Telegram – February 1, 2019Few counties in Wisconsin are as wet as Douglas County. Nearly a quarter of the total acreage of land in Douglas County is wetland and that poses a challenge for economic development. Douglas County has a plan to manage that challenge and is working with city officials to draw on decades of expertise in handling wetland mitigation as it pushes to create an in-lieu fee program for wetland mitigation. Read full story here.

WI: Could an effort to restore wetlands along Mukwonago River impact an already-endangered frog species?

Jim Riccioli – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – January 24, 2019Naturally, the last thing you expect a wetland restoration effort to do is negatively impact an already-endangered little frog. Strictly speaking, according to state officials, the 52-acre wetland mitigation project within the Davis Nature Preserve isn't a major factor in the survival of the Blanchard's cricket frog, a half-inch long amphibian that has been struggling to hang on in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. But on about 1.3 acres west of the village of Mukwonago, along the Mukwonago River, the dark-colored frog has been making a home in the vicinity of the former wetland habitat that was drained for agricultural use in the 1950s. Read full story here.

Wetland Sciece News

Arctic Sea Ice Loss in Past Linked to Abrupt Climate Events

British Antarctic Survey – February 12, 2019A new study on ice cores shows that reductions in sea ice in the Arctic in the period between 30-100,000 years ago led to major climate events. During this period, Greenland temperatures rose by as much as 16 degrees Celsius. The results are published this week (Monday 11 February) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). A team from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), University of Cambridge and University of Birmingham studied data from ice cores drilled in Greenland. They looked at oxygen isotopes and compared them to climate models run on the ARCHER supercomputer. From this they determined that sea ice changes were massively significant in past climate change events in the North Atlantic. These periods, called Dansgaard-Oeschger events, are some of the fastest and largest abrupt climate changes ever recorded. During some of these events, Greenland temperatures are likely to have increased by 16 degrees Celsius in less than a decade. Read full story here.

For a Climate Reporter, a Dreaded Question: ‘Then Why Is It So Cold?’

By Kendra Pierre-Louis – The New York Times – February 8, 2019What were the temperatures where you live yesterday? What about last week? A month ago? What were the daytime highs and lows two years ago last Tuesday? If I’ve stumped you, that’s the point. Most of us might be able to recall, more or less, what our local temperatures were through the previous week; further back than that, we need to start pulling up temperature records. And even if you could remember, that would only reveal the temperatures where you were. It wouldn’t tell you what temperatures were halfway around the globe, across the country or, unless you’re a merperson, in the ocean. But whenever temperatures dip, as they did last week across much of the United States during the polar vortex, some people — including the president — ask, “If the planet is warming, why is it still cold?” It’s a question that frustrates a lot of climate scientists and climate reporters, both because the answer is obvious to us, and because some of the people asking the question seem to be using it as part of an effort to sow misinformation about climate change. We would never point to a night sky as evidence that the sun doesn’t exist. Read full story here.

We may be overestimating the carbon cleanup power of trees

By Sarah DeWeerdt – Anthropocene Magazine – January 29, 2019Human activities are pumping excess carbon dioxide into the air; plants remove carbon dioxide from the air through photosynthesis and use it to fuel their growth. That neat equation has spurred hopes that a so-called “fertilization effect” of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide will result in increased plant growth and partially mitigate climate change. In fact, land plants and soils currently absorb about 25% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. But two papers published in the past week suggest that we’ve been overestimating the potential for increased plant growth to get us out of our climate change jam. Read full article here.

Dry inland waters are underrated players in climate change

By Nadja Neumann – IGB – January 22, 20192018: a year of drought – climate change causes an increase in the number of freshwaters that run dry, at least temporarily. Also, many lakes are shrinking permanently or have disappeared completely. Around 90,000 square kilometers of water surface have already vanished in the last 30 years. This trend is not only a threat to drinking water reserves and major ecosystems – dried freshwaters also play an important role in the global carbon cycle and may be responsible for the release of CO2 and other climate-relevant gases. Two recently published studies undertaken with involvement of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) reveal that the importance of this phenomenon has so far been underrated. Read full story here.

Endangered Species Act Is Working for Sea Turtles and Marine Mammals

By Jason Daley – Sierra – January 19, 2019The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 is one of the legal cornerstones of conservation in the United States, and when it works the results can be spectacular. Bald eagles and peregrine falcons have returned to the skies, wolves and grizzly bears prowl around Yellowstone, and humpback whales ply oceans on both coasts. But deciding whether the ESA is doing its job for other species is much more difficult. There are fewer scientists keeping tabs, less data, and less money. That’s why researchers from the Center for Biodiversity looked into the recoveries of marine mammals and sea turtles listed on the ESA: 78 percent of the populations they investigated saw significant increases after listing, indicating that the law is doing its job. Read full story here.

Resources and Publications

Lily Pads and Long Toes: A Marsh Bird Sampler

By James Teaford – Amazon Kindle – January 31, 2019While observations of secretive marsh birds and other wildlife form the framework, the author extends these field experiences by contemplating the probable backstories and the potential outcomes associated with various wetland incidents. With a mix of objectivity, subjectivity, and a dash of humor, the author examines subjects such as avian jumping jacks, dancing grebes, whopper-class frogs, crayfish-chomping alligators, and the foraging habits of herons and egrets. Read more and order book here.

Chesapeake Conservancy develops technology for James River restoration work

Augusta Free Press – January 19, 2019To support the Virginia Environmental Endowment’s new James River Water Quality Improvement Grant Program, the Chesapeake Conservancy’s Conservation Innovation Center recently developed a “Restoration Planner,” a web-based application to support planning and evaluation of restoration projects. The Restoration Planner leverages the CIC’s high-resolution land cover and flow path data to identify and prioritize high-impact, cost-effective projects that maximize water quality benefits for the James River watershed. Read full story here. More information on how to access the Planner and webinar can be found here.

Engineering With Nature: An Atlas

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – October 2018This atlas is a collection of 56 projects that illustrate a diverse portfolio of contexts, motivations, and successful outcomes. These projects are presented and considered in this atlas using an Engineering With Nature® lens as a means of revealing the use of nature-based approaches and the range of benefits that can be achieved. Read more and download.

Potpourri

The Rising Tide of Climate Injustice

By Clinton Parks – Undark – February 14, 2019Chesapeake Avenue, in the Salters Creek neighborhood of Newport News, Virginia, sits atop a seawall that shields it from the Hampton Roads, the body of water that connects the mouths of the James and Elizabeth Rivers to the Chesapeake Bay near where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The avenue stretches 2.5 miles east from Newport News to neighboring Hampton. Many of the adjacent neighborhoods, including Salters Creek, where I grew up, sit just a few meters above sea level. Here, the seawall is quite literally a last line of protection against climate change. Read full story here.

Find Your Climate-Altered Future on A New Interactive Map

By Timothy B. Wheeler – Bay Journal – February 12, 2019 Ever had trouble picturing how climate change could alter the quality of life in your community? Now there’s a map for that. Using a statistical technique called “climate-analog mapping,” two researchers have matched hundreds of cities in the United States and Canada with places that currently have the climate those cities are projected to have decades hence. Read full blog post here.

Helping farmers help our waterways

By Rebecca Chillrud – Chesapeake Bay Program – January 30, 2019Agriculture is vital to the Chesapeake region. There are more than 83,000 farms in the watershed that make up a $10 billion industry and provide us with food and fiber. However, agriculture is also the single largest source of nutrient and sediment pollution entering the Bay. Many farmers are working to implement positive conservation practices that reduce their impact on local waterways and the Bay, but these practices can often be costly. One of the main way’s farmers are able to obtain support for these projects is through programs funded by the federal Farm Bill. Read full blog post here.

Cleaner Power and Flowing Water: Finding Balance Between Smart Renewable Energy and River Protection

By Michelle Lakly, Managing Director, Saving Rivers Program the Nature Conservancy – January 24, 2019If there were any lingering doubts about just how dangerous, and imminent climate change really is, those were dispelled by recent IPCC report, which underscored the imperative of limiting temperature increases to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. This requires achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, and to do that, the world must quickly transition to renewable energy. And yet it’s not quite as simple—there are other considerations to keep in mind as we make this transition. Read full story here.

Loons Are Getting Squeezed by Wind Farms

By Jerry Howard – Hakai Magazine – January 14, 2019Wind turbines don’t just wallop birds that collide with their spinning blades, they also shift where birds choose to fly and land. A new study shows that wind farms in the German North Sea have squeezed loons into a smaller resting spot along their spring migration route, which could make it harder for them to find food. Scientists suggest that as wind energy developments become more common, these subtler effects need to be considered. Read full article here.

Developers, not farmers, get biggest hit from wetlands rule

The Associated Press – January 14, 2019President Donald Trump often points to farmers as among the biggest winners from the administration’s proposed rollback of federal protections for wetlands and waterways across the country. But under longstanding federal law and rules, farmers and farmland already are exempt from most of the regulatory hurdles on behalf of wetlands that the Trump administration is targeting. Because of that, environmental groups long have argued that builders, oil and gas drillers and other industry owners would be the big winners if the government adopts the pending rollback, making it easier to fill in bogs, creeks and streams for plowing, drilling, mining or building. Read full blog post here.

'Waters of the US' would alter environmental reg as we know it

By Joshua A. Bloom – The Hill – January 1, 2019 The scope of the Clean Water Act has been the subject of dispute beginning with its enactment in 1972.After three seminal and other Supreme Court decisions, hundreds of appellate and district court cases and stops and starts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers to fashion regulations to both reflect congressional intent and seek practical implementation of the act, the Trump administration has now proposed a regulation that will drastically curtail the reach of that law. Read full story here.